May 6 2020
Acts 12:24-13:5a; John 12:44-50
Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Easter
Weekday prayer service at St. Catherine of Siena church
Today’s first reading, from Acts, is the beginning of the story of Paul’s missionary travels, which will bring the message of Jesus to many new places and ultimately to us. The reading recounts how Paul and Barnabas are sent by the Christian synagogue in Antioch, Syria, to visit other synagogues in the eastern Mediterranean and bring their members the good news of the Messiah and his message.
I’m impressed by the great faith these early Christians had in Jesus, in God, and in the power of the Spirit, as a result of Easter. The whole community was praying for guidance from the spirit, which they fully expected to receive, and they were fasting for strength and endurance. They were confident that the Spirit spoke to them as it had spoken through Jesus. Our text even gives words to the Spirit: “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”
Maybe one of the “prophets” named in the passage channeled the Spirit, or perhaps the Spirit spoke through an inspired utterance by a member of the congregation, the way the occasional Quaker will speak up in a meeting of silent Quaker meditation. But however they heard the Spirit, the whole community ratified that this was the Spirit speaking and accepted that Paul and Barnabas should be sent out as missionaries. So Barnabas and Saul “were sent forth by the Holy Spirit,” not by their community. This was the beginning of Paul’s missionary travels, which would take him over so much of the known world and end in his martyrdom.
Paul and Barnabas, like Jesus, are bringing the good news to people; that is, they are evangelizing. Today’s Gospel reading contains Jesus’ last public address, his summing up of his evangelization. The main point, for Jesus, is that his message comes from God. Authenticity is of course the crucial thing for any prophet. Jesus tells the Israelites, “I didn’t make this up! It’s God’s message. If you believe me, you are really trusting in God.” He was filled with God’s spirit and everything he said came from God. As he says, “I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.” This is the first essential requirement for prophecy, and for evangelization: the message has to actually come from God.
Jesus lived what he preached, and Paul did too. I’ve heard a great saying about evangelization: “Evangelize yourself first.” We all need to be better Christians. The best advertisement for Jesus’ way was always Jesus himself, who practiced compassion and self-denial and embodied the life of the spirit. He practiced what he preached, and that is what converts people. In the thirteenth century, St. Francis put it like this: “Preach always. If necessary, use words.”
Jesus says that he came to save the world. True evangelization is always motivated by love and a desire to save. Pope Francis has distinguished between evangelization and proselytizing. To proselytize is to try to sign somebody up for the church. Francis rejects proselytizing. To evangelize is to help people lead better lives and to help make the world a better place—in short, to help bring about the kingdom of God. Mother Teresa evangelized. When her biographer once asked her whether she tried to convert people. “She replied, ‘Yes, I do convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu, a better Christian, a better Catholic, a better Sikh, a better Muslim. When you have found God, it’s up to you to do with him what you want.’”[1]
Jesus says that he did not come into the world to condemn. You need to believe him, but if you don’t, he won’t condemn you. He’s not one of those preachers who are eager to tell us who God hates, or who isn’t good enough to join us at the table. His message is one of compassion, self-sacrifice, and eternal life. That very message will condemn those who reject it, because it’s God’s message for their salvation, and if you reject compassion, self-sacrifice, and eternal life, you’ll miss out.
Some of today’s greatest evangelists are those people—Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists—who are selflessly working at great cost to themselves to save lives and provide for our basic needs in the midst of the corona virus pandemic. They are an inspiration to us all.
[1] Navin Chawla, “‘I convert you to be a better Hindu, a better Christian, a better Muslim’,” Economic Times blog, September 5, 2016, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/et-commentary/73995/, accessed May 5, 2020.